Today's Publishers Lunch roundup contained a few deals for British authors:
Elena Forbes' DIE WITH ME (the opening chapter of which was shortlisted for the 2005 Debut Dagger Award), the first in a series introducing Detective Mark Tartaglia and the rest of Homicide West Team Five as they investigate a rash of apparent suicides involving young girls plunging to their deaths from church naves around London, to David Adams at MacAdam/Cage, in a two-book deal, by David Forrer at Inkwell Management, on behalf of Sarah Lutyens at Luytens & Rubinstein (US).
NB. In the UK, 'Die With Me' will be out in July, published by Quercus.
Tom Rob Smith's debut thriller CHILD 44 and a second novel, to Mitch Hoffman at Grand Central, in a pre-empt, by Jim Rutman at Sterling Lord Literistic on behalf of James Gill at PFD.
Teacher of classical history at Lincoln College, Oxford Harry Sidebottom's FIRE IN THE EAST, KINGS OF KINGS and LION OF THE SUN, a trilogy of adventure novels of ancient Rome pitched as in the tradition of Mary Renault and Patrick O'Brian, featuring espionage, treachery and desperate, last-gasp, bloody warfare, and centering around a soldier who has risen to be a Roman General despite his northern barbarian origins, sent to the Eastern edge of the Empire to defend against the looming Persian threat, to Alex Clarke at Michael Joseph, for publication in summer 2008, by James Gill at PFD.
Journalist and former investment editor at the International Herald Tribune Martin Baker's MELTDOWN, with creative input (and contract negotiation) from his wife, City fund manager Nicola Horlick, a thriller set in Paris dealing with high finance, murder, jurisprudence, sex and politics and the biggest conspiracy theory imaginable, to Jeremy Trevathan at Pan Macmillan, in a pre-empt, for publication in January 2008 (world).
Martin Baker's website is here.
Well, I am looking forward to the Forbes- thanks for the heads up -- but the Horlick marital thingy not so much, partly based on the Michael Ridpath experience and partly based on the hypy ghosty air of it.....maybe time will prove me wrong on that one. But I somehow doubt it.
ReplyDeleteOh my god, could I ever use a man like Harry Sidebottom in my job. I want to write the headline "Sidebottom is tops." I also like the premise of those books. Do you know in which period of Roman history he sets them?
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
From Harry's 'CV': "He is at work on three novels, the Fire in the East series, set in the east of the Roman Empire in the Crisis of the Third Century, and featuring the charismatic Marcus Clodius, best know by his familiar name -- Ballista. The first, FIRE IN THE EAST will be published by Michael Joseph in August 2008.
ReplyDeleteThey sound more like historical fiction than historical crime fiction. More details at http://www.pfd.co.uk/clients/sideboth/b-aut.html